Military
honors salute those served
By Dennis CamireCourtesy
of the Gannett News Service

The
haunting notes of taps wafting over a solemn group of mourners and the
reverent folding of the American flag for the next of kin are the two basic
ways the nation formally honors the passing of those who have served the
country.

Many
people also have seen on television or in person the horse-drawn artillery
caisson carrying a flag-draped casket, the riderless horse with riding
boots backward in the stirrups and raised rifles firing in a final salute.

These
and other elements make up the "military honors" bestowed on fallen military
and high government officials at their final resting place, whether in
Arlington National Cemetery or other cemeteries across the country, according
to interviews and information from multiple sources including the U.S.
Army Military District of Washington.

Taps

The
melancholy call of taps, sounded on a bugle or trumpet, was written during
the Civil War when the Union Army's then-Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield
wanted to replace the more formal and colorless "Tattoo" that signaled
lights out and go to sleep at day's end.

While
in camp at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in July 1862, Butterfield penned
the call on the back of an envelope and worked out the notes with his brigade
bugler.

The
call, officially adopted by the U.S. Army in 1864, became known as taps
because it was often tapped out on a drum when a bugler was not available.

The
use of taps at a military funeral developed that year when a unit occupying
an advanced, concealed position buried one of its soldiers.

Because
it was unsafe to fire the customary three rifle volleys over the grave,
the unit commander decided that taps was the most appropriate substitute
ceremony.

The
custom quickly spread through the Army of the Potomac and official orders
later confirmed it.

Caparisoned
Horse

The
solemn walk of a fully saddled riderless horse with the riding boots reversed
in the stirrups is a military honor dating back to antiquity.

The
caparisoned — ornamentally covered — horse symbolizes the ancient custom
of sacrificing a horse at a warrior's burial and that the warrior had fallen
and would not ride again.

In
the time of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, the Mongols and Tartars believed
the sacrificed horse's spirit followed its master and served him in the
afterworld.

Tradition
allows a caparisoned horse to follow the casket of an Army or Marine Corps
officer with the rank of colonel or above and of a U.S. president in funeral
processions.

Firing
Party

The
firing of rifle volleys over the grave as part of rendering military funeral
honors is rooted as far back as the Roman Empire, when casting dirt three
times on a coffin was part of the burial ritual.

The
practice evolved into the custom of calling a truce during early battles
with firearms to remove the dead and wounded from the field.

One
army would fire a volley to signal its side had completed its work and
were ready to resume combat. The second army would fire a volley to show
it was finished, and the first army would fire a volley to acknowledge
that combat could begin.

The
military honors volleys — seven riflemen firing three volleys — is not
the same as the 21-gun national salute rendered in honor of a national
flag, the chief of state of a foreign nation or a president.

The
Caisson

Using
a horse-drawn artillery caisson to carry a flag-draped casket of fallen
military officers, top non-commissioned officers and high civilian leaders
evolved from its use as a makeshift ambulance to carry dead and wounded
off battlefields.

That
developed into the tradition of a caisson carrying the coffin as a military
honor, but Arlington National Cemetery is the only national cemetery that
still uses it.

The
cemetery's black caissons, built in 1918, originally were used to pull
75 mm cannons and were equipped with ammunition chests, spare wheels and
tools.

Six
horses pull the caisson and although all are saddled, only the three on
the left have riders. In the early days of horse-drawn artillery, the other
three would have carried provisions and feed. Alongside the team, a seventh
horse carries the section leader.

Folded
Flag

Part
of the full military honors ritual at funerals is the draping of the casket
with the flag and its presentation to the next of kin following the service.

The
Army officially adopted the tradition in 1918 as a sign of the nation's
gratitude for the deceased's service, but the custom dates back more than
two centuries when flags covered the dead as they were carried from the
battlefield on horse-drawn artillery caissons.

The
tradition of folding the flag in a triangular fashion is symbolic of the
tri-corner hat worn by Revolutionary War soldiers.

The
folding is done in a ceremonial way with reverence and care taken to ensure
no wrinkles blemish the flag. At the end, the flag is cradled to the chest
to straighten any errant folds or wrinkles before being presented to the
next of kin.

Arlington
National Cemetery

Arlington
National Cemetery began during the Civil War when the federal government
confiscated the 1,100-acre estate and home of Confederate General Robert
E. Lee and his wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, for failure to pay
$92.07 in taxes.

An
earthen fort was built on the estate and Lee's home, Arlington House, was
taken over as the headquarters for Washington's defense, said Tom Sherlock,
the cemetery historian.

In
1864, the mansion and 200 acres immediately surrounding it were designated
a military cemetery.

The
Lee family contested the federal government's confiscation in the 1870s
and won its case in the 1880s.

"But
at that time, there were many burials on the ground and it would have been
impractical to remove them," Sherlock said. "They settled for the market
value of the estate, which at that time was $150,000."

Since
then, more than 300,000 of the nation's veterans from the American Revolution
through Iraq have been interred in the cemetery's 624 acres. Only Long
Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York, has more graves with
almost 330,000.

Arlington
conducts an average of 27 to 30 burials a day with just more than 6,600
funerals in 2006.

The
most visited sites in Arlington are the Tomb of the Unknowns, which contains
unknown soldiers from World War I, World War II and the Korean War, and
the grave of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated
November 22, 1963, and buried three days later.

"About
4.5 million visitors each year will visit each of those locations," Sherlock
said.

President
William Howard Taft, who served from 1908 to 1912,
is the only other president buried in Arlington.

Other
notables include Audie Murphy, the nation's
most-decorated soldier in World War II; Joe Louis,
who held the Heavyweight Champion of the World title longer than any other
boxer, and Captain Maximiliano Luna, the only Mexican American officer
in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.

The
Old Guard

With
impeccable dress uniforms, solemn demeanors and precise movements, the
soldiers of The Old Guard present military honors at Army funerals in Arlington
National Cemetery.

Rain,
sleet, snow or blazing hot and humid days, they roll the caissons, carry
the caskets, fold the flags and fire the rifle volleys over the graves
in final tribute to the nation's military veterans and high government
officials.

"We
get to go out and render final honors to those people who served around
the world," said Army Sgt. Justin Shaw, who commands a seven-member rifle
firing team. "We put our best foot forward for those people and those families.
It's a good feeling to be able to go out and do that."

But
the soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment — its official name — also
remain true to their role as infantrymen by providing security for the
Washington, D.C., area during national emergencies, such as the September
11 terrorist attacks, and civil disturbances.

The
unit has 50 campaign streamers spanning history from the 1794 Battle of
Fallen Timbers to World II and Vietnam service to current deployments in
the Horn of Africa.

Then-Major
General Winfield Scott gave the unit its name during a victory parade at
Mexico City in 1847 for its performance in the Mexican War.

Today,
soldiers of the Old Guard are most visible to the public as they perform
their duties as the Army's official ceremonial unit and escort to the president.

All
the men and women in the regiment are volunteers from within the Army and
have to meet strict selection requirements that include minimum height,
fitness and general military appearance.

Once
selected, they go through a three-week program to learn the details of
uniform preparation, marching and other things needed to do their jobs

Those
can cover everything from being a member of the casket escort team, which
handles the coffin and performs the flag folding ceremony to riding the
horses that pull the caisson used to carry the coffin to the grave.

How
do they manage to do everything with such precision?

"It
requires a lot of practice and a lot of patience and a lot of experience,"
Shaw said. "They get it ingrained in their minds so that they don't really
think about it. They just do it."